Women's empowerment

In two of its components, the project was fighting an uphill battle to get the attention of potential partners. The first component concerned Roma political parties, and, the second, municipal government and cooperation with the Equality Commissions (committees) of the municipal councils. The lack of interest by these partners highlights the absence of effective political representation of Roma and their interests in a “patron-client” political system, where parties do a poor job of representing the priorities of their constituencies, or of responding to their concerns. The parties saw no benefits in opening themselves to cooperation with an NGO which they did not trust. There seems to be little interest on the part of local government units in committing resources to Roma issues, and Roma tend to be invisible in local decision-making. The work supported by the project in two of the three municipalities was useful, but had no impact in changing the disposition of local government towards Roma and Roma women’s organizations.

The grantee was unaware of the impact the political parties have on the alleged independence of candidates, representatives and leaders in the administration. The evaluation revealed that the true impact of women leaders within the political parties relied mainly on co-operation and loyalty to leading figures.

The theoretical content of the training sessions, which were carried out almost exclusively in French even though women in rural zones rarely speak anything other than Kirundi, meant that the needs of the beneficiaries could not be efficiently met.

The initiative to train young women activists to undertake research on the socio-economic conditions of Roma women in local communities was effective both in terms of the training and the value and relevance of the data collected. Working with two partners, the grantee was responsible for the development of the Shadow CEDAW Report in 2005, submitted to the UN CEDAW Committee. The document is regarded as highly credible and is widely used by both domestic and international organizations. It is also an effective advocacy tool. The new data will be used in compilation of the next Shadow CEDAW Report.

During the elections, Burundian civil society actors coordinated among themselves, to make their voice more credible and coherent when dealing with public authorities. However, the grantee isolated itself from the activities being undertaken by the platform of these CSOs, considerably weakening the relevance of the project as a whole.

The National Forum remains merely a well-intentioned document, and there is no environment for political dialogue between women leaders from across the board. None of the project elements led to the drafting of a policy promoting women. The signing and ratification of a legislative text remain wishful thinking. The report written by female observers was not circulated. The documentary that was made in four of the Northern provinces has never been shown and remains to this day in a desk drawer in the association.

Most project components were short of funds. All delivered the planned outputs, so commitments were lived up to. Yet all components of the project ended abruptly when they could have benefited from further work or follow-up. A more results-focused approach to budgeting might have brought about a change in the pattern of allocation of funds and the dropping of some components in favor of optimizing impact.

The project was closely linked to the 2010 electoral challenges in Burundi to encourage women to vote and to stand for election. The election process, with a mandatory quota of 30% female representatives within institutions, was an important lever to generate collective awareness among all these leaders and shapers of opinion. This project also went beyond the elections by suggesting the creation of a National Forum for dialogue, allowing women leaders to overcome political differences and to exchange ideas on priorities to be implemented in order to improve the living conditions of Burundian women.

An especially important impact of the project was that it encouraged a large number of women to obtain national identity cards, a potentially life-changing event for many.  During the 2010 floods in this area there had been a general awareness raising of the rights associated with identity cards but the project converted this general knowledge into a concrete entitlement to public relief.

Not much thought was given to the design of the media campaign element of the project at its start. In planning for this element of the project the grantee could have included a qualitative market research component, even as simple as a few focus groups, to help assess impact and revise messages and materials accordingly. This would have also allowed an assessment of the impact of the media campaign.